No-Go Zones: German Police Admit To Losing Control Of Immigrant ‘Problem Neighbourhoods’

ODD ANDERSEN/AFP/Getty Images30 Dec 2015

The development of so-called “problem neighbourhoods” or “lawless neighbourhoods” in Germany over the course of 2015 has made law enforcement impossible in some areas, according to police reports.

The latest admission of the developing problem of no-go zones in Europe comes from state police in North Rhine-Westphalia (NRW), a west German state that borders Belgium and the Netherlands. Here, an inquiry by a Conservative Democratic Union (CDU) politician into the state of policing has elicited an embarrassing admission of failure by local police to keep the situation under control.

In Germany, state police are responsible for local law enforcement, but in emergencies can call upon Federal police and appeal to neighbouring states for support. The CDU parliamentary deputy Gregor Golland’s question had revealed 78 per cent of all local regions within NRW have had to bring in external re-enforcements this year due to migrant criminal gangs, reports the Rheinische Post.

The migrant crime in the state is blamed on flourishing criminal gangs, particularly ones emerging from the Lebanon, Poland, and Serbia, which have proven difficult for the police to penetrate. One NRW detective said that these “family” ties borne of ethnicity and foreign nationality make suspects reluctant to speak to police, and investigators routinely experienced “silence during interrogations”.

But these gangs are “certainly only the tip of the iceberg” in terms of immigrant crime, said the detective. These criminals acted with uncommon brutality towards police, he said, with officers often leaving these areas “bruised and battered”.

CDU deputy Gregor Golland has criticised the political establishment in NRW for allowing this state of affairs for developing, where “criminal parallel societies are seeking the upper hand, or those already solidifying”. He said police must be better equipped to deal with the problem.

This is not by far the first time politicians and police officers have spoken out about no-go zones and rising migrant crime and violence. High-profile woman police officer Tania Kambouri remarked on the subject during an interview this month, as she discussed the lack of respect young Muslim men displayed towards their new home, and the officers who keep the law in it.

Stating that young Muslim men proudly proclaim “shit on Germany”, Mrs. Kambouri said police had already lost control in some areas of the country. The officer also expressed concern that anyone who brought up these issues was instantly discredited by being denounced as a “Nazi”.

Elsewhere in Germany the migrant crime wave is also being felt. New end of year police statistics from the State of Saxony have shown a 47 per cent rise in Migrant crime in 2015 compared to 2014, with ten per cent of all migrants in the state suspected of or convicted of crime, even before crimes relating to being in Germany illegally are factored in.